donated to the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care. the festival had contributed approximately US$11.5 million to the Cam Neely Foundation. Neely played with the Boston Bruins and later became team president; after his mother died of cancer in 1987 and his father in 1993, he founded the charity in 1995 and that same year asked Leary if he were interested in orchestrating a Boston-based comedy benefit show.

The inaugural Comics Come Home was held in the Orpheum Theater